Tag Archives: downsizing

The Road to Diamond, Day 344: Road Planner

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Posted by on in children, collaborating, Community, Personal goals, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

November 6, 2025- The talk, other than about Blood Drives, trailer reorganizations and the entry in Prescott’s upcoming Veterans’ Day Parade, was regarding my pending move to Texas. My Red Cross associates are, in a pleasant surprise, fully on board with it. I have been with the local RC organization since 2012, so ties to the group are strong. Nonetheless, the most important thing to most Red Cross staffers and volunteers is family. To a one, those meeting in Prescott today expressed happiness at the upcoming arrival of my grandchild.

These next eight weeks or so will therefore be very much concerned with letting go of household furniture, a good many books and some other items that have accumulated over the past fourteen years. Another family member who made a similar move, a few years back, has,by example, given me a roadmap ( no pun intended) for this move to be done efficiently and successfully.

In the middle of it all comes Thanksgiving, and we will celebrate it in Grapevine, while looking ahead to spending next year in a house, instead of an apartment. I will drive out there and back, largely because of the uncertainty that still hangs over the airline industry, due to the government shutdown. My diamond jubilee will be the day after Thanksgiving, and besides, the three of us have so much for which to be grateful. Not the least of it is the arrival of family member # 4. I already feel a very deep love, not explicable to anyone who is not themselves a grandparent.

So, my plan is to spend 2-3 days each way on the road, and repeat the process just before Christmas, weather permitting.

The Road to Diamond, Day 271: On Hold

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Posted by on in Assistance, Community, impediments, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

August 26, 2025- The morning after a slam-bang lightning show with matching cloudbursts, that made up for July Dry/Fry, was quiet. The air was still, and the action on a car part that I need for Sportage was even stiller. This will impact my honouring of a departed former co-worker, in another part of the state and likely delay my visit to Hopi, which I would like to make before departing for Europe. Whoever is slow-walking the delivery of the part (now in the last day of a 3-5 day delivery window), probably has their reasons. So, things are on hold.

I was able to cull cassette tapes and CDs that I will no longer use, and the last non-digital camera I had kept from the 90s. Other items are being separated, and still others will be recycled, tomorrow or Thursday. A lot of memories are being rekindled, with this process. All my loose old photos of married life and clippings of the major events of the 2000s and 2010s are consolidated in one box.

Then, there were the messages. One resulted in my reiterating my view of good and evil. This took about four repetitions, all calm but direct, and perhaps my points finally got across. This is one area where some have very deep-seated opinions and will insist on their views. I go more with common sense. The second was inquiring about the wisdom of moving to this country for the purpose of basic employment. In another time, that is something I would have encouraged and tried to abet. Nowadays, I steer the inquirer towards other countries. People with advanced, marketable skills still have a chance; labourers, not so much.

Experience shows that a day spent calmly on hold is followed by a day in which everything, everywhere, happens all at once. I will take progress on the car front and an uptick in control of four or five remaining fires in the back country. Every day brings treasure of a sort.

Peacefulness Is Back

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Posted by on in children, Education, Family, Inspiration, Personal goals, Social, Spiritual, Striving

June 7, 2017, Prescott-

Questions of longevity are always in the background, as I think about what one might do, over the next three to five years. I just finished reading a book, Apocalypse, by Dr, Jim Richards, a Christian writer and broadcaster, and will have more to say about said book, a post or two from now.  The thing I wish to mention, here, is Dr. Richards’ trust in God is a true thing of beauty, and I have to say, I share just about all of it.  That gives me something on which to work.

Several things happened today, all of them good.  I pretty much am down to two large and two small sections of brush, to be cleared, after a mild, cool morning served as my incentive to get more done than I had planned.  I got more supportive e-mails from the District, including one I had never expected, from my recent supervisor.  Goes to show, I need to work on my reading of people’s cues.  Anyway, the job situation looks set for the coming year.

Housing is something about which I am still pondering.  I am also getting advice, mostly unsolicited, about my supplemental finances.  The final decisions about both will be made towards the end of this month.

Having spoken at length with Aram, last night, I reiterate as to how proud I am of what he has achieved, and how he is facing continuing challenges.  He has another person to support him in his efforts now, and that, as many of us know, will make all the difference.

The car will get serviced on Friday, I will continue downsizing and yard work, the rest of this week- and the latter part of next,  and in between, run an errand of mercy in southern California, as well as visiting a friend, or three, there.

Rough patches tend not to last long, if one pushes forward with, as Muhammad Ali said, “eyes on the prize”.